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Ursus

Germanic Polytheism

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Viggin has asked we discuss the Germans more. I'm not an expert on the political or military history of the German tribes, but I can offer the basics of their religion.

 

 

Intro

The various German tribes practiced a form of polytheism and animism. While the religion differed from tribe to tribe, they held many things in common. The Germanic tribes apparently were heir to a vast oral tradition of myths and legends as comprehensive as Greco-Roman mythology. Most of this has unfortunately been lost. What we know of Germanic religion comes from the few myths recorded by Christian monks, the biased and incomplete accounts of Roman historians, and sporadic archaeological remains. Something of Germanic religion also survived in the various fairy tales and folklore of the Germanic nations.

 

The Germans were similar in religion and culture to the Celtic tribes. Around the regions of the Rhine they blended into each other to the extent that Caesar had difficulties distinguishing between the two. Caesar simply decided that everyone on one side of the Rhine would be considered Germans, though the true picture is more complicated.

 

Regardless, our principle source for Germanic indigenous religion comes from Iceland. Iceland was the last Germanic nation to be converted to Christianity. It was there a Christian monk recorded the fading myths. It was there the religion survived best in folklore. And it was there where the religion experienced a rebirth in the 20th century. In 1972 the government of Iceland recognized Germanic polytheism as a bona fide religion. From there Germanic polytheism spread into Germanic and English speaking countries around the world. Of all the reconstructionist pagan religions, Germanic polytheism is the most widespread and successful. This is due in no large part to those of Germanic extraction exploring their heritage and finding something of worth in the pre-Christian traditions.

 

Germanic polytheism is also a victim of politics. Ever since the Romantic movements of the 19th century, there were nascent groups exploring a

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In terms of Cosmotology and Germanic Prophecy I have my own beliefs on the matter. Since I consider myself a hard Polytheist I believe that the Germanic Gods were compleatly seprate from the Roman dieties. But I belief that the other tribe of gods, the Vanir was symbolic message made by the German people to mean all the other gods. Odin's Family of Gods is the Germanic Gods and the Vanir that they went to war with were the other dieties of Europe: (The Celtic, Slavic, Gerco/Roman etc.) Hence the war ended and hostages were exchanged. That symbolized peace between all the dieties of Europe. Raganork.....the end of the world in Germanic Polythesim in my opinion is simply the end of the Germanic Gods. The "Trolls" are the Christians that lead to the final destruction of Odin and his family. But it also says that after the end of the world...Odin's son Balder...the most beautiful and loving of the Gods will return from hell and reform the pantheon. This has yet to be seen... :P

 

Many mythological stories are symbolic messages in my opinion

 

Zeke

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very nice post Ursus! :P

 

"De oldgermanic word "goth", which is the name for everything divine comes from the protogermnic word *guthom - to call. The gods are so to speak "the onces you call"

 

I will go deeper into the Germanic Polytheism on a later date, however just that much, in southern germany/austria there were slightly different names for the norse gods and some of them made it into days of the week...

 

Odin ---> Wodan ---> (old english) wodnesd

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That is quite interesting. I'm curious as to how outlooks on the world might change if Germanic faith became more prominent. I'm a strong Christian and wouldn't take part in it, but it would be fascinating to see how thr world might change if old school polytheism came back in style on a large scale.

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All Germanic tribes practiced a polytheist faith as near as we can tell.

 

What do you mean by influence?

 

Oh, I was a bit perplexed that the Germanic gods are exactly the same as the Scandinavians. I'm just wondering where the origin is. Like which culture influenced which, the Germans or the Scandinavians?

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the Germans or the Scandinavians?

 

Both are Germanic in the classical sense. We associate Thor etc with Norse mythology, because they were Germanic tribes that hung onto the old ways for longest, as Ursus mentioned (Correct me if I'm wrong Ursus).

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Germanic Paganism does have the greatest possiblity of becoming a prominate European Faith, there are so many Germanic Countries that would readily embrace it because their politics are so liberal and in general Christainity isn't as predominate as it is in Italy or Greece.

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All Germanic tribes practiced a polytheist faith as near as we can tell.

 

What do you mean by influence?

 

Oh, I was a bit perplexed that the Germanic gods are exactly the same as the Scandinavians. I'm just wondering where the origin is. Like which culture influenced which, the Germans or the Scandinavians?

 

 

All the Germanic tribes were descended from a proto-Germanic culture, which was itself an offshot of the proto-Indo-European culture. They have things in common because they have a common root.

 

They're not exactly the same, though. Differences arose as tribes diverged. I believe Loki who plays such a central role in Scandanavian lore is absent from the Continental traditions.

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@Zeke

I disagree that Christianity isnt as important in Germany than in Italy or Greece. Bavaria is heavily catholic, and now that there is a bavarian pope it got a whole lot stronger. The practise of germanic paganism is considered racist in germany.Due to Hitlers propaganda. if you would walk in a german town with a HAIL ODIN shirt, everybody would think you are a racist. And Germanic Paganism is also used as a propaganda tool by the Neo-Nazis. Germany and Scandinavia are like Italy and Greece. Many Germanic Tribes came from Scandinavia(Norway, Danmark and Sweden). so there isnt a huge difference in the Ancient Cultures. Goths and Gepids, Teutons and Langobards all originated from scandinavia. Vikings are considered germanics by most. This whole Faith discussion, reminds me of the Indo-european discussion. Italics(Roman) and Germanics and Greeks all had a similar language and believe. The God DYEUZ is found in every Indo-european Culture (Greek-Italic-Illyrian-Germanic-Slavic). The Italics had big similarities to the Germanic Culture in terms of worship and burial.

 

The Celts, were not in anyway related or similar to germanic Culture. Only later on when they shared a common border, both cultures adjusted a bit.

Edited by LEG X EQ

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The Celts, were not in anyway related or similar to germanic Culture. Only later on when they shared a common border, both cultures adjusted a bit.

 

If i am not completely mistaken then the term "Germanic" was originally used by the Romans only as a geographical term, rather than a precise ethno-linguistic term. To the Romans, the territory beyond the Rhine and Danube rivers was Germania, and anyone from Germania was Germanic, regardless of ethno-linguistic identity, right?

 

cheers,

 

viggen

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Regarding the racist part that LEG posted.

 

I think its a very sad thing to Nazis promoting Germanic Beliefs just to futher their own agendas. It makes Polythesits look like racists and further isolates them and turns them into freaks. Oh and I compleatly forogt about that the fact that the Pope is German, hence a new revival of Catholic culture may occur in Germany within the next couple years.

I will ponder on this new situation.

 

So yeah,

 

Zeke

Nationalism and Faciasim seems to accompany all the Polythesitic faiths that do arise this is not going to help the image of the ancient beliefs.

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The practise of germanic paganism is considered racist in germany.

 

Well, that's just sad an entire faith is denigrated because a few extremists have misused it. If it were done to any other faith - say, Islam - there would be hell to pay from the legions of self-confessed multicultural activists.

 

Saying all Germanic polytheists are Nazis is like saying all Roman pagans follow Mussolini's politics. It's stupid.

 

 

The Celts, were not in anyway related or similar to germanic Culture.

 

 

You know, I'm trying to be polite, Leg, but I just can quite agree with some of your cultural posts. They don't seem to have much basis in fact.

 

Toodles.

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